Chris Parker

Chris learned to fly in 1972 on a Royal Air Force Flying Scholarship and joined the RAF in 1976 after university, flying the Harrier GR3/T4 at Gütersloh and Wittering as a weapons instructor. In 1988 he joined Cathay Pacific in Hong Kong where he flew the L-1011 Tristar and Boeing 747-400 as First Officer, and the Tristar and Airbus A340 as Captain. In 1996 he returned to the UK and joined Virgin Atlantic on the A340 fleet. He added the A330 to his type list in 2014 and converted to the Boeing 787-9 in 2016. Flying experiences includes Stearman flying at Chino, California, floatplane flying in California and on a UK PBY Catalina, ferrying a TB-10 Tobago from Hong Kong to Guanghan, China, ferrying his A36 Bonanza from Pretoria to the UK in 1998 and sending his eldest son solo on a 1947 Cessna 120 (he now flies the Typhoon). His total flying time is 19,500 hrs, with 2,300 of that in Single Engine Piston.

After a frantic week of long-range faxes and Bonanza research, the deal was done and the planning started for the ferry flight back to Peterborough Sibson (EGSP) in the UK. I was keen to fly it myself if at all possible as I’d never done a long flight in a light single and it seemed wasteful to pay someone else to do it. What was a Bonanza capable of?

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